Heather’s Blog
I lied.
I said that Ryan did a year of work and and a year of school and was ready for a year of adventure.
I forgot we already did that.
The year that Ryan was in kindergarten, Scott and I decided to head to Key Largo , Florida with my parents.
We left in a motor home on Christmas Day night heading for the border.
The adventure part is travelling with my parents. Papa is many things but a calm driver is not one of them.
Nana drank Amaretto as the sights passed us by. I understand now how the road trip became more enjoyable for her.
We stopped in St Louis and Nashville. We visited the Grand Ol Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. 18 month old Jordyn sang Keith Urban “ I want to dub somebody, dub somebody like you”.
It was a trip of a lifetime. We pulled Ryan out of school and lived in the sun for 2 1/2 months.
Scott came and went but we stayed.
Oh god, I loved it.
Each day we swam in the pool. Ryan learned to dive from Steve, our next door neighbour. He fed the rainbow fish in the lagoon outside our back door.
We had day trips to the Alligator farm where he teased Nana with the snakes being fed rats. We stopped at Roberts Fruit Stand where they made the best fresh fruit shakes in the world. ( Ryan liked chocolate 🙄).
It was where Ryan learned to ride his bike.
He hated doing anything he wasn’t automatically good at.
“ Baby boy, “ I said as he fell off each time and grudgingly got up, frustrated and mad. “ You did the hardest part. You got back up. That’s all you ever need to do my love, is to get back up”.
I never wanted it to end. Memories filled with sunshine and love.
We were so lucky.
And maybe that is the joy of adventures, the memories you look back on. You were different there and you came back changed.
I know that my son is beside me whispering “ Mom, you can do this. The hardest part is getting back up. “
So I will stand. @ Sun Peaks Resort